At one time, a local telephone market was served by a single local exchange carrier. However, local telephone markets are now open to competition from competitive local exchange carriers (“CLECs”). The incumbent local exchange carrier (“ILEC”) in a market is required to offer services to the CLECs that are equivalent to the services that it provides itself so that a competitive environment exists.
To determine whether an ILEC is providing services to the customers of a CLEC that are equivalent to the services that it provides its own customers, data is collected that measures the performance of the services provided to the ILEC's customers and the performance of the services provided to the CLEC's customers. One system for collecting transactional data and calculating performance measurements is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/474,356 entitled “Method for Performance Measurement and Analysis of Local Exchange Carrier Interconnections” which is incorporated herein by reference. The performance measurements typically measure the timeliness, accuracy and availability of the services provided. For example, a performance measurement can be defined to measure the percentage of missed repair appointments.
Although the ILEC is required to provide equivalent services, there is no established method for determining whether the services provided are equivalent. Thus, there is a need for a method for determining whether an ILEC is providing services to the customers of a CLEC that are equivalent to the services that it is providing to its own customers. The method should be flexible enough to accommodate a variety of performance measurements so that a comprehensive comparison can be made.
If the ILEC does not provide services to the CLECs that are at least equal in quality to the services provided to the ILEC itself, then the ILEC may be subject to penalties. For example, a state public service commission (“PSC”) may impose monetary penalties for the failure to provide equivalent services or the ILEC may be denied entry into the long distance market. Thus, there is a need for a method for calculating a remedy if the ILEC is not providing services to the customers of a CLEC that are equivalent to the services that it is providing to its own customers. The method should be flexible enough to accommodate a variety of penalties that may be imposed by PSC's in different states.